4 21 2011

VOICE the georgetown

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ANC DELAYS CAMPUS PLAN TESTIMONY PAGE 4

WOMEN’S LACROSSE HITS STRIDE PAGE 6

HOT AND BOTHERED PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  April 14, 2011  Volume 44, Issue 13  georgetownvoice.com

LIVE LIVE MUSIC MUSIC at at Georgetown Georgetown

2 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

Letter to the Editor:

hot off the blog !

X VO

Mayor, councilmen arrested during protest on Capitol Hill

What sucks: Trivia returns to Tombs, so let’s debate some comedy Hoya delays independence again, WaPo doesn’t notice

Overheard in Georgetown premieres on Twitter Strangers sneak into LXR rooms, elude capture

Vox Populi

blog.georgetownvoice.com

Voice Crossword “Happy Hab Hunting by Scott Fligor

Across: 1. Hawaiian porch 6. Something often spun 10. Back 13. Where to see “bombs bursting”

14. First of all 15. Recipe instruction 16. Letter wearer 18. ESPN sportscaster Andrews 19. Reading spot

The commission charged with making recommendations for the $3.4 million in the now-defunct Student Activities Fee Endowment has a unique opportunity to improve student life at Georgetown. And while there are limitless ways the SAFE Commission could recommend spending the money, they should honor the original pitch made to the students whose money first funded the endowment 10 years ago. Speaking as an alum, I feel the proposal that best does this is the $1.5 million Social Initiative and Public Service Fund.

Many of the students I interview as part of the undergraduate application process mention Georgetown’s focus on service and participation in the ‘real’ world as one of its attractions. President John DeGioia wrote recently in the University Investment Report that the importance of student scholarships is in the “formation of the future leadership in our country and in our world.” Jesuit values are front and center on the home page of the University’s website. The SIPS Fund meets all the goals outlined in this year’s University Investment Report and fits with Georgetown’s presentation of itself on its website.

The SIPS Fund can establish a new standard for undergraduates in social innovation and public service to their immediate communities and to the larger world. It would enhance Jesuit ideals and prioritize service in the lives of undergraduates and future leaders. The SIPS Fund would also leave physical renovations up to the University, leaving fees meant for student activities untouched.

Georgetown students, despite all their gripes about the social and living conditions on campus—we had our complaints too 30 years ago, even with a pub in the Healy basement—enjoy a standard of living beyond most of the world’s inhabitants’ wildest dreams. Dare to live up to the ideals that intrigued you in your application interviews. Dare to go beyond the comforts of Healy Gates and engage your community and your world in new forms of public service through social innovation.

Support the SIPS proposal.

Katherine Schroeder, SFS ‘82

20. 8th mile town in Boston Marathon 22. Grounded toy?

26. Sweater spot 27. English physicist Newton 28. Obsolete 31. “L’ Shana ___” 32. Asian capitol 34. Suffix with hydrox- or sulf35. Piqued state 36. Coolest 37. Patriot Act program 38. GoCard number: abbr.

39. Pink Floyd alb.

40. African fox 41. Islamabad’s country 43. A-Ha hit “___ Me” 45. Some I.R.A.’s 46. Mandate 47. “Am not” rejoinder 49. Swedish cottage 50. Royal Indian 51. Alternate to 16-across 57. Fundamentals 58. “Zip-_____-Doo-Dah” 59. Hotel quotes 60. Severe concussion, e.g.

61. Gets the points 62. Surrealist Max

answers at georgetownvoice.com Down: 1. Designer Claiborne 2. In addition 3. Glasgow refusal 4. Rhône tributary 5. Having a twist 6. Chevy model 7. One of the Aleutians 8. Household deity 9. Disembogues 10. View from Montenegro 11. Bank guarantor 12. Armored army vehicle 15. Humana competitor 17. Folding bed 21. Taxpayer’s worry 22. Rises (from bed) 23. Tone deafness 24. Distributor 25. MLB Network commentator Jim 26. Awesome

28. “Pour ___ on troubled waters” 29. General Electric founder 30. Rely (on) 32. See 12-down 33. ___ one: (together) 39. Regarding 40. Newer AK-47 42. Bits 43. Pressure unit 44. A in physics?

46. Can be diet or zero 47. “I smell ___” 48. David James Elliot role Harmon 49. Fir, e.g.

52. Drink suffix 53. One for the road 54. Egg unit: abbr.

55. “______ a jolly good fellow” 56. Follower’s suffix

ARE YOU A LOGOPHILE? Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 44.13 April 14, 2011 Editor-in-Chief: Molly Redden Managing Editor: Tim Shine Editor-at-Large: Juliana Brint Director of Technology: Ishita Kohli News Blog Editor: Geoffrey Bible Leisure Blog Editor: Nico Dodd News Editor: Chris Heller Sports Editor: Nick Berti Feature Editor: Sean Quigley Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: Leigh Finnegan Voices Editor: Aodhan Beirne Photo Editor: Max Blodgett Design Editors: Nitya Ramlogan, Catherine Johnson Projects Editor: Brendan Baumgardner Crossword Editor: Scott Fligor Assistant Blog Editors: Diana McCue, Vincent Tennant Assistant News Editors: Rachel Calvert, Ryan Bellmore, Jeffrey Neidermaier Assistant Sports Editors: Adam Rosenfeld, Rob Sapunor Assistant Cover Editor: Holly Ormseth, Kelsey McCullough Assistant Leisure Editor: Mary Borowiec, Heather Regen, John Sapunor Assistant Photo Editors: Julianne Deno, Matthew Funk Assistant Design Editor: Michelle Pliskin Associate Editors: Julie Patterson, Jackson Perry Contributing Editors: Keenan Timko, Matthew Collins

Staff Writers:

Gavin Bade, Thaddeus Bell, Akshay Bhatia, Tom Bosco, Kara Brandeisky, Sam Buckley, Matthew Decker, John Flanagan Kate Imel, Satinder Kaur, Daniel Kellner, Matt Kerwin, Eric Pilch, Sadaf Qureshi, Abby Sherburne, Melissa Sullivan, Mark Waterman

Staff Photographers:

Sam Brothers, Helen Burton, Jackson Perry, Audrey Wilson

Staff Designers:

Megan Berard, Richa Goyal, Ishita Kohli, Michelle Pliskin Kathleen Soriano-Taylor

Copy Chief: Keaton Hoffman Copy Editors:

Emma Forster, Emily Hessler, Kate Imel, Tori Jovanovski, Claire McDaniel, Kim Tay

Editorial Board Chair: J. Galen Weber Editorial Board:

Gavin Bade, Juliana Brint, Ethan Chess, John Flanagan, Ishita Kohli, Tim Shine, Cole Stangler

Head of Business: Kara Brandeisky The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible with the support of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at CampusProgress.org. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 413 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Web Site: georgetownvoice.com The opinions expressed in the Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board.

Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of the Georgetown Voice. The University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover ... A history of concerts at Georgetown Cover Graphic: Iris Kim

the georgetown voice 3 LEAVE IT TO WEAVER

Vote Bryan Weaver for D.C. City Council From the oppressive new D.C. noise law to the fight over the 2010 Campus Plan, Georgetown students have learned just how overbearing the District government can be.

This month’s special election for the D.C. City Council’s at-large seat is an opportunity for students, who make up one-eighth of D.C.’s population, to change that, showing lawmakers their importance to this city.

Bryan Weaver (D) of Adams Morgan is the best advocate for students among the wide field of candidates, and he is the right choice on Election Day for students seeking to stop more anti-student measures.

At a recent youth issues forum sponsored by DC Students Speak, all of the candidates for the at-large seat claimed to oppose the noise law and support greater student representation in D.C. government.

But Weaver was the strongest on these issues. He argued not only against the use of

the noise ordinance to target students but against the law in general, saying that its original intent, silencing union and religious activism, was unjust.

Weaver, along with some of the other candidates, also supports students’ right to live off-campus. However, he is unique among his rivals in that he has constructive solutions to related issues, such as his proposal to relax the height restrictions on D.C. universities so they can provide more on-campus housing.

Weaver is by no means the favorite in the coming election. His campaign faces an uphill battle against popular Pepco executive and former Councilmember Vincent Orange (D) and interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle (D), who enjoys the support of the Democratic State Committee, Mayor Vincent Gray, and the majority of the current Council.

But both frontrunners are lukewarm on students’ issues. In a recent candidate forum,

Orange strongly opposed Georgetown’s campus plan, saying, “I know what happens when students move into the community: it’s parties every single day.” And all Biddle had to say about off-campus housing was that he was glad that it was the Zoning Commission’s decision and not his.

Still, it’s by no means impossible for Weaver to win. It was just this kind of special election that propelled then-Republican David Catania (I) to his at-large seat in 1997 in an upset against the favored Democratic challenger.

Even if Weaver fails to win, a strong showing for him in university neighborhoods fraught with town-gown issues would be an unmistakable sign of increased student activism. That in itself would make whoever wins on Election Day think twice about trampling on D.C.’s college students in the future.

DEFICIT DELUSIONS

Slashing spending won’t solve budget woes In the aftermath of last week’s cliffhanger budget deal, pundits focused on the size of the cuts, about $38 billion. But while that number sounds large, it is small compared to the cuts that will be debated in the coming weeks, as Republicans try to pass parts of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R–Wis.) long-term budget plan.

If Democratic and Republican leaders really care about shrinking the federal debt and improving employment prospects they will drop the foolish narrative of austerity that has prevailed in recent months. The American economy needs growth, and massive spending cuts will do nothing to bring that about.

In the months after their midterm shellacking, Democrats have slowly abandoned economic principles and joined with Republicans in espousing the idea that immediate deep spending cuts and austerity measures are necessary for prosperity. In reality, such measures will weaken the econo-

my and threaten the nascent recovery. Back in February, Sen. Harry Reid (D–Nev.) said that slashing spending by around $30 billion would be “draconian.” Unfortunately, since then, he has begun to refer to the $38 billion in cuts he helped pass as “historic.”

Republicans claim that deep cuts are necessary to maintain investor confidence and avoid a debt crisis like Europe’s. While the size of the U.S. debt is a problem, there is no indication that it requires immediate reduction or that investors are worried about the government’s ability to make good on its payments. Rather, rates on U.S. bonds are at an all-time low. Cuts will be needed, but they must come only after the economy has returned to stable ground.

The first step in rejecting the cutting frenzy will be forcefully countering Ryan’s budget plan. Seventy percent of his cuts would affect low-income families, while tax cuts go almost entirely to corporations and the wealthy.

President Obama’s plan presents a more balanced approach. In vowing not to renew the Bush tax cuts a second time, the president made clear that the disadvantaged cannot be made to bear the burden of sacrifice alone. Equally important was his promise to cut military spending, something Ryan’s plan essentially ignored. The president has backed down on these issues before, but this time he, and the country, cannot afford to compromise.

It is crucial that our leaders denounce the false promises of austerity and fight to defend the essential tenets of the President’s budget plan: a commitment to protect crucial social services and a promise that serious cuts will come when the economy has regained steam. If they do, then last week’s unfortunate budget deal won’t even amount to a line in the history books, and Democrats will be vindicated by robust economic recovery.

LET IT ROCK

Students deserve more at campus concerts Although it scarcely seemed possible after letdowns like Coolio, Third Eye Blind, and TPain, the Georgetown Programming Board hit a new low with its most recent concert, the underwhelming Kevin Rudolf and his even more obscure openers. The disappointing lineup drew hardly any student enthusiasm. In a preconcert poll on Vox Populi, just eight percent of respondents said they were excited about the concert, and 30 percent chose the “Who is Kevin Rudolf?” response. A concert attendee reported that there were only 20 people or so left in McDonough by the end of Rudolf’s set.

But concerts at Georgetown weren’t always such lackluster affairs. During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Hilltop hosted the likes of The Who, The Beach Boys, and Bruce Springsteen. The music industry has changed a great deal since then—most importantly, booking fees have skyrocketed— yet other schools have managed to continue putting on impressive shows. This year, MIT is hosting Jason DeRülo and Janelle Monáe,

and Vanderbilt students will have the chance to see The National, KiD CuDi, Public Enemy, Matt & Kim, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

With a little more effort and forethought, Georgetown’s concerts could regain some of their former glory. But that won’t happen until the Georgetown Programming Board starts prioritizing quality over quantity. Between WGTB and the cornucopia of campus a cappella groups, there are already a number of opportunities for students to enjoy lower profile musical events.

Where GPB really has a chance to impact campus life is in hosting signature concerts from big name artists who can appeal to a broad segment of the student population.

GPB needs change its current booking model. Instead of hosting both a spring and fall concert, GPB should consider dedicating its entire concert budget to a single event.

GPB could further increase the caliber of artists by cutting down on the number of

openers. Instead of booking four middling acts, as they did for this most recent concert, GPB should concentrate its resources on one major performer.

GPB should also start thinking more creatively about how to finance its shows. GUSA’s recent changes to the Student Activities Fee should mean more money for all student groups, including GPB. But if the funding boost doesn’t fully cover the cost of bringing a good artist to campus, GPB should push for additional funds from the administration and consider increasing ticket prices.

It’s true that in general, broke college students prefer cheaper tickets. But if an extra five or 10 dollars is the difference between a one-hit-wonder and a genuinely popular artist, many students will be more than willing to foot the higher bill. Decades ago, Georgetown attracted legends to the Hilltop. GPB has the chance to recapture these glory days, but unless it starts seeking quality acts, its events will continue to feel like middle school dances.

news

4 the georgetown voice

Campus plan hearings begin today

by Chris Heller More than a year’s worth of debates and negotiations will crest tomorrow, when the D.C. Zoning Commission will hold its first hearing about the University’s 2010 Campus Plan.

University President John DeGioia, Provost James O’Donnell, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, as well as traffic and economic development consultants hired by Georgetown will testify at the hearing.

However, community leaders and elected officials from Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission will not testify, due to an eleventh-hour request filed by ANC commissioners and the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown to delay their testimony. By delaying the community testimony, residents will have “ample opportunity to express their views,” according

to D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who supported the delay with Councilmember Mary Cheh.

After the University filed prehearing changes in late March, including plans to add 250 beds on campus or a satellite location, the D.C. Office of Planning announced it would release a revised analysis and testify on May 12.

The order of presentation at the hearing will not change despite the delay and the community testimony will be held after the Office of Planning and DDOT’s presentations.

Nonetheless, the turnout tomorrow is expected to be high.

Student advocacy group DC Students Speak, with funding from the Georgetown University Student Association, will provide free shuttle service to the hearing. At later hearings, DCSS plans to present student testimonies to the Zoning Commission.

“We’re really trying to get students to attend because we think it will show the Zoning Commission that the stakeholders are not only the small, vocal group residents opposed to the Campus Plan, but also the students of the University,” DCSS member Alykhan Merali (SFS ‘13) said. “Our presence will set the tone for the rest of the meetings.”

Last night, Burleith Citizens’ Association President Lenore Rubino also announced plans to arrange car pools for residents to attend.

University officials, who have no plans to alter their presentation, are eager to start to the hearing process.

“We look forward to the hearing and will be ready and happy to have it go forward as scheduled,” O’Donnell wrote in an email. “We have a good story to tell.”

april 14, 2011

Water taxi opens on waterfront

Max Blodgett

Earlier this month, American River Taxi began shuttling passengers from the Georgetown Harbor to the Southwest Waterfront and Nationals Stadium.

The ride, which takes approximately 35 minutes, takes a similar amount of time as a ride as commuting on public transportation. The $9 fare, however, is significantly higher than a Metro railcar or bus fee.

Originally announced in August 2009, the taxi’s debut comes after a variety of delays.

—Geoffrey Bible

Relay takes aim at record Polls open online as RJC begins reform

by Neha Ghanshamdas Georgetown Relay for Life, which will hold its annual relay event this Saturday, is on pace to best recent years’ fundraising numbers.

The group, which raises money year-round for the American Cancer Society, has raised $265,851 from 193 teams as of Wednesday night.

This year, student organizers employed a new strategy.

Out of concern that in years past fall advertising was too heavy, they chose to hold back their serious fundraising campaign until the spring semester.

However, when classes began in January some student organizers were concerned about the lagging numbers. While Georgetown Relay for Life typically donates more than $300,000 annually, less than 30 percent of participants actively fundraise.

“We started the semester close to $40,000 behind past years because of our new strategy and were worried we wouldn’t be able to make up the ground,” Mike Towler (MSB ‘11), chair of Georgetown Relay for Life, wrote in an email.

But the strategy worked. In recent weeks, the year-to-date donations surpassed those from

2010 and 2009, when the group ultimately raised a school record -breaking $403,000. Towler remains optimistic that they will top that figure by August, when the year ’s fundraising formally ends.

Alexandra Panichella (COL ’14), currently the top individual fundraiser and a member of the top fundraising team at Georgetown, set her personal goal at $25,000. Panichella has been an active participant since she got involved seven years ago after a friend was diagnosed with cancer. This year, she’s already raised $21,765. Saturday’s event, when students will converge on Multi-Sport Field, has become a family affair for her.

“My whole family is coming in for the event,” she said.

“They are such a big part of the process.”

According to Towler, approximately 3,000 to 3,500 people will turn out for the event, depending on the weather.

“Last year ’s event suffered a good amount of rain and a ton of wind,” he wrote. “We feel like this hurt attendance but I think it came in under 2,800. The forecast for Friday is looking great, so hopefully we will have better attendance than last year.”

by Jeffrey Niedermaier After a yearlong hiatus, the Residential Judicial Council opened campus-wide elections Wednesday for its nine student councilor positions. The restructured body will debut next year with structural changes, but newly elected councilors will largely determine the council’s mission.

With campus-wide elections, steering committee members hope to shape RJC into a more effective and well-received body.

According to Natalie Punchak (COL ’11), a former Residential Judicial Council chair and a member of the steering committee charged with restructuring it, the elections will close at 5 p.m. Friday and results will be released Saturday.

“I know of no university which currently has an electiondriven student court,” Punchak wrote in an email. “It is an innovative act, not without some risks, but we think it is a necessary one. With elections, we achieve the highest ideals of representation and accountability on both sides—on the side of the administration and the students.”

The steering committee, which is comprised of student members, Office of Residence

Life Associate Director Ed Gilhool, and East Campus Hall Director Billy Colona, has worked this semester to restructure the body that was founded a decade ago as a collaboration between the Office of Residence Life and the student body. Previously, the incumbent chair and Residence Life administrators chose student councilors from a pool of applicants.

According to Michael Barclay (COL ’12), another member of the steering committee, other substantive changes to the RJC include a series of training sessions. The council will also hold sessions rather than meeting several times over the course of the week.

This year, however, ResLife suspended the RJC due to its dwindling membership and a skeptical reputation among students. David Freenock (COL ’12), a councilor before the hiatus who is one of 18 students running in the election, criticized the council’s previous incarnation.

“The RJC only created the illusion of student involvement,” he said. “It sounded great and looked great on paper, but in reality it didn’t do anything.

The reason it was on hiatus was

because student involvement wasn’t high.”

In spite of the changes, however, some students doubt the RJC’s ability to effectively adjudicate violations of the University’s code of conduct.

Georgetown University Student Rights Initiative, a student rights advocacy group, has publicly encouraged students to appeal punishments under the current adjudication system, which very fw do.

“Electoral reform is not enough to bring about the organizational evolution that the RJC needs,” James Butler (SFS ‘11), GUSRI founder, wrote in an email. “Until the administration allows the courts to operate as a legitimate, democratic judicial organization, it will neither be trusted by nor useful to the students the RJC is designed to serve.”

To vote in the election, students must plan to live on campus in the 2011-2012 academic year. Each voter can select nine of the 18 candidates from an online ballot.

“As candidates are elected, we give them the power to make changes in tandem with the Student Code of Conduct,” Barclay said. “Ultimately, it’s their baby.”

news

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the georgetown voice 5

Competition, debate for $3.4 million heat up

by Jeffrey Niedermaier As the Student Activities Fee Endowment Commission nears its Apr. 26 voting deadline, commission members are faced with a difficult task: choosing between proposals to allocate $3.4 million suggested by their peers.

The commission’s final recommendations to the Georgetown University Student Association Finance and Appropriations Committee will fall into three tiers. Up to five proposals will be labeled as primary recommendations, which will be strongly recommended to FinApp. According to FinApp representative Colton Malkerton (COL ‘13), GUSA senators will study the proposals this summer, then put the most feasible proposals up to a student referendum in the fall.

If the senators deem a proposal impractical, they will then look to the commission’s secondary

recommendations—valid, but not exemplary proposals.

The third tier of recommendations will outline the commission’s recommendations for guiding themes, such as student space and service. It will also include proposals that are valid but not appropriate given the amount of money available.

At a meeting Tuesday night, Fitz Lufkin (COL ‘11), representative for the Healy Pub proposal, informed the commission that according to Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, renovating the 10,000-square-foot Healy basement would cost a maximum of $400 per square foot of space.

“Hypothetically, we could have a space four times the size of the Tombs for $2 million,” he said, adding that the other $1.4 million would be needed for items like furniture and a liquor license. “We could almost pay for the entire thing with this request ... which would make it more feasible.”

Vote or ... live in the District Entrenched as we are in budget showdowns and entanglements in the Middle East, it can be hard to remember the wave of optimism and liberal fervor in D.C. that accompanied the 2008 election.

The combination of Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate and a new president—who just a year earlier, had co-sponsored a failed bill to give D.C. a vote in Congress—led local leaders to make optimistic pronouncements about the prospects for D.C. autonomy. In the wake of the election, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) even went as far as to claim that voting rights were “all but inevitable.”

But as Obama gears up for his re-election campaign, the situation is far less cheery. On Monday, Mayor Vincent Gray (D) and nearly half of the D.C. Council were arrested for publicly protesting a provision in the congressional budget compromise that would ban the use of city funds to pay for abortions. The compromise, which also included the forced revival

of a divisive school voucher program, prompted Norton to announce, “It’s time that the District of Columbia told the Congress to go straight to hell.”

Such action from local politicians may seem drastic, but the congressional Democrats’ use of D.C. as a sacrificial lamb is only the latest disappointment since Obama took office.

After the election, local politicians and leaders of DC Vote, a non-profit that has led recent lobbying efforts for local autonomy, set their sights on a voting representative in the House of Representatives rather than a full push for statehood, a strategy that proved unsuccessful in 1993, the last time there was a Democratic president and Congress. Ultimately, a 2009 bill that would have given D.C. a voting representative was killed by a Republican amendment that aimed to annihilate the District’s gun control laws.

Although the Democratic Congress generally respected the District’s autonomy, the Republican victory in the midterm election meant more meddling in the city’s affairs. Not only

Also vying for the endowment funds was Taylor Price (MSB ‘10), who helped draft last year’s Report on Student Space at Georgetown. Price proposed that the entire endowment go toward expediting the New South Student Center, which is included in the University’s 2010-2020 Campus Plan. Although $3.4 million

would only fund 17 to 34 percent of the project, Price argued that the endowment money would accelerate the project and better involve students.

“Once it is fully funded, it will only take two years from the design phase to students walking in the door,” he said.

Although both proposals re-

JUlIaNNe deNo

Tuesday’s meeting was the latest step towards doling out millions.

was voting representation dead in the water, but one of the new Congress’s first acts was to strip Norton and other delegates of their symbolic votes in the Committee of the Whole.

In addition to forcing school vouchers on D.C. and stripping funding for abortion, congressional Republicans also moved to override local policies on needle exchange programs, medical marijuana, and samesex marriage. The repeated government shutdown brink-

City on a Hill

by Juliana Brint

A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics manship has also had an unfair impact on D.C., where even basic, locally funded city services must be approved by Congress and would be put on hold by a shutdown.

Overall, Obama’s first term has been a major letdown for supporters of D.C. autonomy. It turns out that Obama’s post-racial politics actually hinged on an unwillingness to tackle minority issues—and democracy in D.C. has been one of its casualties. This impulse, combined with Democrats’ longstanding

reluctance to sacrifice political capital to protect the rights of D.C. residents, has meant no one on Capitol Hill has been willing to fight for the city—except Norton, of course.

It is in Norton’s increasingly fiery rhetoric and the civil disobedience of her political peers that we can find the one positive development to come out of Obama’s disappointing term. The genteel, gradualist approach is gone, replaced with a more resolute willingness to take radical action to achieve real democratic gains for the District.

In 2008, home rule and statehood advocates modeled their action on a fight to end the financial control board, a congressionally instituted group that co-opted control over the District’s finances in the wake of mismanagement by Mayors Marion Barry (D) and Sharon Pratt-Kelly (D). Fiscal autonomy was only regained in 2001 thanks to Mayor Anthony Williams’ (D) deft financial management. The financial control board proved that Congress can be convinced to restore the city’s democratic rights if city leaders can just show enough governing skill and maturity.

quest all $3.4 million, Endowment Commission Chair Andrew Curtis (MSB ‘11) wrote in an email that the commission is likely to recommend five proposals.

At Tuesday’s meeting, however, Malkerson reminded the commission the number of recommendations remains flexible.

“I will admit that five is a slightly arbitrary number,” he said.

Of the major proposals not requesting the whole fund, only Georgetown Energy, which proposed to install solar panels on University-owned townhouses, was present at Tuesday’s meeting to clarify tax and sponsor issues.

Other proposals include the Georgetown University Social Innovation and Public Service endowment and a suggestion by Jesse Colligan (SFS ‘14) to paint murals on the concrete retaining walls lining Canal Road and the Yates Fieldhouse.

But that parallel ignores the fundamental difference between the control board fight and the campaign for voting rights: while the former was based in large part on fiscal issues, the latter boils down to a purely ideological debate.

It was fairly easy to convince Congress of the city’s financial security based on a record of competency and a polite demeanor. But such attributes will do little to alter the anti-democratic prejudices so many congressmen and senators cling to.

Instead, activists should look to the last major democratic gain the District achieved, the 1973 Home Rule Act, which allowed for an elected mayor and city council. These gains were only made in the context of the civil rights movement, which dramatically redefined what equality meant in America.

D.C. rights advocates are right to return to the spirit of civil disobedience that defined that era, because substantive democratic gains will only be made when advocates are willing to call D.C.’s disenfranchisement by its true name: injustice.

Ask Juliana about her favorite form of disenfranchisement at jbrint@georgetownvoice.com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

Hoyas extend streak, set eyes on Big East crown

by Kevin Joseph After getting off to a slow start during a rugged schedule, the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team (6-5, 4-0 Big East) is riding a four-game winning streak. The Hoyas have beaten Yale, along with three conference foes in Connecticut, Cincinnati, and Louisville, to bring their record over .500.

Senior attacker Jordy Kirr has helped carry the Hoyas’ potent offensive attack. In Sunday’s win against Louisville, the captain scored twice and provided four assists in the high-tempo 19-12 home victory.

“There were actually some really bad passes in that game, but the stats won’t show that,” she said. “A lot of credit goes to my teammates that caught those passes.”

Her deference to her teammates aside, after totaling nine points with four goals and five assists in two games last week, Kirr won the Big East Player of the Week award.

Kirr also put herself in the Hoya history books as the first women’s lacrosse player to ever score 100 goals and dish out 100 assists in a career. Moreover, her 101 assists make her Georgetown’s all-time leader in the category. Despite her accolades, the humble veteran remains focused on the larger task at hand—winning the Big East title.

“Bring it every day,” she said, reciting the team’s mantra. “It’s easy to just go through the motions.”

The team’s confidence is not unwarranted. Head coach Ricky

Fried’s Hoyas have won the Big East regular season title every season since the league’s inception in 2007, except for 2008. As for his team’s prospects of repeating that feat this season, Fried remains confident.

“It’s exciting, but it’s something we expect to do well in,” the seventh-year head coach said.

“It’s rewarding to improve over some tough opponents.”

Improvement has been a necessity for the Hoyas this season.

Their slow start revealed the growing pains they underwent with a young core supplementing the veterans. The freshman class represents the best in the country according to insidelacrosse.com, while the sophomores, led by attacker Sophia Thomas, are now regular contributors to the team. Thomas was named to the Big East Honor Roll this week and currently leads the team with 27 goals.

“Sophia has really stepped up,” Kirr said. “She is really competitive—she really has this hunger.”

Still, much of the team’s success can be attributed to Kirr and her fellow seniors, including Logan McCraw on defense and Mary Beth Brophy in the midfield. To Fried, their leadership is by far the most crucial aspect of their contributions to this season’s team.

“Every team goes as their seniors go,” he said. “Not only do they have to play well but they have to bring everyone along with them. This year, without exception, our seniors have put the team first ahead of their own needs.”

McCraw leads a reinvigorated defense, which has not allowed more than 12 goals in any

Courtesy GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Jordy Kirr has been everything the Hoyas have asked for in her senior season.

game since Big East play began in late March. While this number may not seem impressive on the surface, the Hoyas gave up totals ranging from 17 to 24 goals early on this season.

Fried has emphasized forcing the opponent to work for all of their goals, but only now are the Hoyas seeing consistent results from his philosophy. The coach acknowledged the transition his defense has made as a game-changer, but still felt there was room for improvement.

“That is part of our upswing— our defense coming together,”

Fried said. “We’re starting to play better as a group, but we still need to get rid of some of the lapses that we have.”

Certainly, this group of Hoyas is capable of great things on defense, having limited Yale and Cincinnati to three and two goals, respectively. However, those two wins were sandwiched by two games in which, despite winning, the defense gave up 12 goals in close games.

The Hoyas soon face the heart of their Big East schedule. In between tough matchups with Loyola and Maryland lie match-

ups with traditional powers Syracuse and Notre Dame. Fried continues to stress his “focus on the game at hand” mentality, choosing to approach the postseason when it actually arrives, rather than speculating almost a month in advance.

Kirr also acknowledged the challenge of facing such motivated opponents, but keeps the near goal of running the table in the Big East at hand.

“They bring their best game when they play us,” she said.

“We have the quiet confidence that we are the Big East.”

the Sports Sermon “I always remind Coach T before big games that the key to winning is me playing. Every time I get in, we win by 20 points.”—Ryan Dougherty take the innocent teases, I still wasn’t old enough to be verbally assaulted. That was what I was expecting on this trip.

To my surprise, none of that really happened. There were no in-your-face confrontations, no curses spewed in my direction, and no threat of any alcoholic beverages being poured on me. I walked out of the stadium unscathed.

In all honesty, I was kind of disappointed. How can you let a fan of your biggest rival walk into your home field and not give him a hard time? This was the same Fenway Park that made sevenyear-old me cry, right?

confidence and may not worry about hating her anymore.

As I walked out of my The greatest rivalry in sports friend’s downtown Boston doesn’t really seem all that great apartment, I was met with a mix right now. The two players that of excitement and alertness. I share the most hatred for each was headed to my first baseball other are Joba Chamberlain and game of the season—a special Kevin Youkilis. That’s a far cry occurrence for any baseball fan. from the Roger Clemens-ManTo make it better, the weather ny Ramirez days, and it’s miles was perfect and the Yankees away from the rivalry that was were playing the Red Sox. present in the ‘70s, when each But as I donned my white meeting had more brawls than and navy blue Yankees hat, I rea hockey game. mained attentive—I was in enThe Yankees and the Red emy territory. I was prepared for Sox haven’t faced off in the expletives, and maybe more, to postseason since that 2004 sefly my way. After all this was the ries and haven’t really had any Yankees vs. the Red Sox—the meaningful late season matchCurse of the Bamups either. Playing Pete Rose Central bino, Bucky Dent, 15 games against Da bettin’ line Aaron Boone, and each other every even Don Zimmer. season only lessens Dookies Margin Hoyas I knew I’d need the importance of (underdogs) (duh!) to defend myself (favorites) each game. and my team, so The rivalry Hollins Tunnel vision isn’t the same as I made sure I had Villanueva Backman some comebacks it used to be, but Shhh Kobe ready to go. It Carmazzi Girly men it isn’t over by Brady helped that Boston any means. It just had only just won their first This was the first time it re- needs fresh blood and new game and were tied for last ally hit me: Red Sox fans haven’t players to carry the intensity. place with a 1-7 record. As we been the same since 2004, when There has always been a rivalry walked to the ballpark, I began the team broke their 86-year within the rivalry, and right to see a lot of red and imme- World Series curse. Half of my now that is lacking. A “new” diately thought about my past family and a lot of my friends are rivalry won’t happen anytime journeys to Fenway.

Red Sox fans, and none of them soon. The teams didn’t instantWhen I went to my first have stopped having negative ly hate each other the day Babe game there at the ripe old age feelings towards the Yankees.

Ruth was sold to New York—it of seven, a Red Sox fan made But I think in a lot of cases, took some time and bad blood. me cry. He jokingly said some- the pure hatred that was once But when it does happen, thing innocent like, “the Yan- present has turned into mere I’ll know immediately. My unkees stink and they are going dislike. It’s just like when the easiness about walking into to lose.” He felt really bad after unpopular girl, who was al- Fenway Park will be restored, the fact and apologized, but at ways taunted by the most along with a uniquely satissuch a young age, I was still popular girl in school, shocks fying hatred. When 30,000 scarred. That was my first taste everyone when she is named strangers in red are heckling of enemy territory. I had gone to prom queen. She doesn’t begin me and making me feel out of a few more games there since, to like her once-superior class- place, all will be right with the and while mature enough to mate, but she has a newfound world again.

by Nick Berti

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Baseball freefalling in Big East No luck for lacrosse

by Rob Sapunor After a promising start to the season, the Georgetown baseball team (18-7, 1-8 Big East) has struggled in conference play. Most recently, a sweep by West Virginia over the weekend has pushed the Hoyas to the bottom of the Big East standings.

The Hoyas have lost eight of their last nine games after a 9-2 stretch that included a sevengame winning streak. Georgetown has been swept in its past two Big East series, picking up their only win during the rough patch against non-conference opponent UMBC. During the slide, the Hoya offense has gone cold, failing to score more than four runs in any of the eight losses.

“We’ve had a number of hitters go into slumps at the same time, and we’re facing tougher pitching,” head coach Pete Wilk said.

The first game against West Virginia saw Georgetown jump out to an early lead in the top of the first inning, only for starting pitcher Charles Steinman to give up three runs in the bottom half of the frame. The sophomore gave up another run in the second but held the Mountaineers scoreless in his next four innings while striking out eight. The Hoyas failed to take advantage of the solid pitching, however, and lost 4-3.

On Saturday, junior pitcher Will Harris gave a strong showing, giving up two runs over six and two-thirds innings. But West Virginia pitcher Harrison Musgrave, who allowed only three

Courtesy GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

The Hoyas have failed to score more than four runs in any Big East game.

Champions born, again After the long slog of the NBA regular season, the playoffs are finally upon us. We are now fortunate enough to see teams playing defense on every possession and stars worrying about the scoreboard instead of the stat-sheet.

Above all, we can look forward to a new champion—sort of.

This season and recent history suggest that there will be nothing really new about this year’s champion. Once again, the same old teams will be competing for supremacy in the postseason.

Despite struggling down the stretch, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are still among the favorites; together, they account for five out of the last six teams to reach the finals. The San Antonio Spurs

clinched the top seed in the West and remain serious contenders—just as they have been for more than a decade.

Even the so-called “newcomers” on this year’s list of contenders are no breath of fresh air. The much-analyzed Miami Heat may have a sexy new look with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, but it has only been a few years since Wade brought a title to South Beach in 2006.

Another popular pick, the Eastern Conference-leading Chicago Bulls, also have a history of dominance that lingers in the mind of many basketball fans, even though their last championship was in 1998. Maybe Derrick Rose hasn’t been here before, but the Bulls franchise has. Wouldn’t it be nice to see someone else take a

hits, shut out the Hoyas. West Virginia won the game 4-0.

Redshirt junior Tommy Isaacs took the mound in the series finale to try to salvage a Georgetown victory, but he was shelled early, giving up eight hits and four runs in the first four innings. The Hoyas strung together a few hits in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game up at four. But West Virginia responded quickly, with third baseman Dan DiBartolomeo hitting a two-run homer off freshman Alex Baker. West Virginia held on to pick up the 6-4 win and the sweep.

Despite having no teams in the top 25, the Big East is no walk in the park.

“It [the Big East Conference] is one of the best in the nation.

This is not a surprise,” Wilk said of his team’s struggles.

The Hoyas troubles continued Tuesday against No. 2 Virginia, who beat them 4-0 in a game that lasted five innings due to rain.

The Hoyas only two hits of the night came from third baseman Sean Lamont as Virginia pitcher Will Roberts struck out six.

After facing a top-ranked, out-of-conference opponent, the Hoyas can refocus on the Big East, where they still have 18 games to play. There’s plenty of time for the squad to improve its place in the standings, but they must wake up their bats.

“We’ve got to get our offense going again because we’re pitching and playing good defense,” Wilk said. “We get a timely hit here or there, and our record is drastically different.”

The team plays three games against conference foe Pittsburgh over the weekend at home on Shirley Povich Field. turn at the top before the Bulls enter another renaissance?

Outside of these teams, there are arguably no other squads with a real chance of claiming the Larry O’Brien Trophy this year. Still, for those of us who are not so lucky to support one of these juggernauts, there are several fresh faces that will battle for playoff relevance.

Backdoor Cuts

By Daniel Kellner a rotating column on sports Out west, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets both possess highly potent young offenses, offering thrilling brands of basketball. Led by two-time defending scoring champ Kevin Durant, the Thunder are also equipped with a raucous home crowd, which could be a major factor in a close series.

by Adam Rosenfeld When time expired on Sunday afternoon in South Bend, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team found themselves in a very familiar position—down just one goal against a top-25 team.

The 7-6 loss at the hands of No. 2 Notre Dame came as a huge blow to the Hoyas and their NCAA Tournament chances, as they have yet to notch a signature win over a top team.

“I’m a little concerned about the frame of mind of my guys right now,” head coach Dave Urick said. “I was extremely impressed by the way they prepared for the game physically and mentally. … It just didn’t go our way.”

The game was a defensive struggle, with the score tied at five apiece entering the final quarter. While the Irish struck first in the fourth, junior Zack Angel responded for the Hoyas with a running shot two minutes later to level the score. The game went scoreless for the next six minutes until the Hoyas were penalized, giving Notre Dame their first man-advantage of the game. The Irish soon capitalized, scoring the eventual game winner with just over two minutes left in the contest.

While the defeat makes the prospect for an NCAA Tournament bid bleak, it is not impossible. Their tough strength of schedule may give them the benefit of the doubt. Out of Georgetown’s five losses on

Meanwhile, the Nuggets have been among the NBA’s best teams since finally putting an end to their Melo-drama and adding much needed depth and youth. A squad full of players with something to prove and a fan-base fired up by the betrayal of their former hero make the Nuggets a tough out for any team.

Unfortunately, these two sleepers will face off in the first round, guaranteeing that only one team will have an opportunity to upset the big boys and reach the Conference Finals.

The East, meanwhile, possesses some intriguing first-round matchups that could provide some unexpected excitement. The most anticipated contest offers a clash between the Celtics and their division rival: the playoff-starved New York Knicks. There’s no doubt that fans at Madison Square Garden will be salivating at the prospect

the season, four have come to teams ranked in the top four in the country.

But the Hoyas will need help from other teams if they expect to play postseason lacrosse. The biggest factor that may doom Georgetown is the Big East’s lack of a conference tournament.

Most other major conferences have one, with the winner awarded that conference’s automatic NCAA bid.

“We’re going to have to win out, that’s pretty obvious now,” Urick said.

The Hoyas have four games remaining, three of which are against teams ranked in the top 20. For comparison, last year the Hoyas ended up just out of the NCAA Tournament and had no wins against a top-20 team, meaning that a strong finish could put Georgetown squarely back in the NCAA Tournament discussion.

The first of the Hoyas’ final four games will be this Saturday at home under the Multi-Sport Field lights against Loyola Maryland, a team that has given the Hoyas trouble the past few seasons.

In last year’s game, Loyola dominated in face-offs, leading to a Georgetown loss that barely saw the Hoyas touch the ball in the second half.

“It’s going to be a test of character and resilience against Loyola,” Urick said.

“We put ourselves in a position where we have to play our way in, and we can’t afford to lose any more games.”

of toppling the Celtics, potentially ending their reign atop the East.

With free-scoring forwards Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, the surging Knicks may be a tougher test than the aging and injured Celtics are ready to take.

In all likelihood, however, these sleepers will all crash and burn against the top teams. We will still see some great basketball, but neutral observers will be forced to ponder the same old match-ups as every year, inevitably deflating the excitement of the postseason. So consider this a rallying cry to get behind the dark-horses. Here’s hoping they can challenge the establishment and provide this season’s playoffs with some much-needed unpredictability.

Spice up Daniel’s NBA playoffs by emailing him at dkellner@georgetownvoice.com

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8 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

Concerts at Georgetown: Then and now

by Sam Buckley

Last Saturday night, a few hundred students gathered in McDonough Gymnasium for the Georgetown Programming Board’s Spring Kick-Off concert, which featured “Let It Rock” singer Kevin Rudolf alongside Los Angeles rapper Shwayze and electro-poppers Dev and the Cataracts.

Though the crowd was relatively small from the beginning, so many students left early that by the end of the concert, fewer than 20 people remained, according to concertgoer Caroline Ackerman (SFS ’14).

This year ’s concert selection generated a tepid reaction from the moment the lineup was announced. Nearly 30 percent of students responding to a poll on Vox Populi, the Voice’s blog, said they had never heard of headliner Kevin Rudolf.

The lackluster response to this year ’s lineup wasn’t a far cry from student reactions to most concerts at Georgetown in recent years. Although the Senior Class Council and GPB cosponsored an appearance this fall by Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco, most spring concerts have featured outdated or lesser known artists. Last year ’s kickoff concert featured ‘90s altrockers Third Eye Blind, and rapper Coolio came in 2008, fully 13 years after the release of his biggest hit, “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

But Georgetown was once a premier venue for bands wishing to make their mark in D.C. From 1969 to 1975, McDonough and Gaston Hall played host to acts such as The Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, the Beach Boys, and Chuck Berry. The Who played Tommy almost in its entirety during a two-hour homecoming gig in 1969, and Bruce Springsteen came twice: first as a rising star in 1974, and then for a three-night engagement a year later, on the heels of releasing Born to Run. “I think the acts really liked

to play at venues that were full of university students,” Jura Koncius (SFS ’75) said. “I do think for them it was definitely part of who they were and part of the whole revolution that was going on. The music was really part of that.”

By the 1980s, however, Georgetown’s live music scene had peaked. Although the school still attracted performers such as Cheap Trick, the Talking Heads, and the B-52s, the center of gravity for D.C. concerts had begun to shift away from campus to bigger venues elsewhere in the District.

By the end of that decade, Georgetown’s reputation as a premier location for big-name stars had finally faded. An Oct. 15, 1987 concert retrospective in the Voice bemoaned the state of on-campus live music: “Once upon a time Georgetown University attracted the biggest names in the business. Today, Georgetown is lucky to have a concert on campus. Any concert.”

Part of the decline of live music at Georgetown can be explained by a proliferation of off-campus concert destinations and changes to the District’s drinking laws.

But many of the changes that hurt the University’s concert scene came from inside the front gates, as student groups de-emphasized live concert programming and campus administrators no longer prioritized scheduling and subsidizing shows.

And given the limited oncampus performance space and GPB’s relatively low budget, the state of concerts at Georgetown seems unlikely to change any time soon.

lll The city’s collection of music venues has expanded steadily since the 1970s, but Georgetown’s performance spaces have remained largely

aquariumdrunkard.com

Bruce Springsteen played in Gaston Hall twice in the ‘70s—and both shows fucking rocked. unchanged.

During the heyday of oncampus rock and roll, Georgetown’s Student Entertainment Commission was able to book major acts despite receiving limited financial support from the University. At the time, few major arenas had been built in D.C., and McDonough and other university stadiums served as the primary venues for artists hoping to make their mark in the District.

The 1987 Voice feature noted that “bands were not only attracted to come here, but came with enthusiasm.”

Koncius said most of the concerts she attended while in college were either at Georgetown or at another university.

“I remember going to other schools to listen to good bands at the same time,” she said. “I think it was common for universities to have big bands.”

Bands were more likely to play at on-campus gymnasiums partly because of a lack of high-capacity venues in the

District at the time. Until 1973, McDonough was the largest indoor arena in the D.C. area, making it a popular destination for students as well as local music fans not affiliated with the school. Throughout the 1970s, only a small percentage of the large crowds for concerts at McDonough were students. A March 26, 1974 article in the Voice reported that a performance by Three Dog Night brought a crowd of 3,800 to McDonough, of which only 500 were undergraduates.

Georgetown’s status as a premier concert venue began to decline when larger commercial arenas like the 18,000-seat Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland were constructed, giving artists larger and more modern spaces to perform.

“Up until [1973, when the Capital Centre was completed] we used to be the biggest indoor arena in the D.C. area,” SEC commissioner Debbie Insley explained in the Nov. 8, 1974 issue of the Voice, “but

when the Capital [Centre] started, it really hurt us.”

Other large venues eventually opened within the city itself, including the 20,000-seat MCI Center (now called the Verizon Center) in 1997. Other D.C. universities eventually began to build arenas that surpassed McDonough’s capacity as well, including George Washington University’s 5,000seat Smith Arena and American University’s 6,000-seat Bender Arena.

As venues within the city grew, more large-scale acts began to bypass Georgetown for other locations.

“Many artists that the SEC contacts are not interested in performing in McDonough Gymnasium, so there is really no way to attract a ‘big name’ to our campus,” the Voice wrote on May 2, 1978. Gradually, the SEC languished as it grew increasingly unable to draw big acts and as non-Georgetown students chose to attend concerts elsewhere in the city.

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georgetownvoice.com Current GPB chair Kathleen McCullough (SFS ‘12) said that a lack of space is still tough to deal with, making concerts that are booked less profitable.

“Georgetown just doesn’t have enough space,” she said.

“McDonough Gym is only allowed to hold 2,500 people. … We never break even—the money we take in is always less than the total.”

lll But limited capacity is only part of the story of live music’s decline on campus. Student programming boards have traditionally been hindered by a lack of financial and facilities support from the University.

From its founding to its eventual replacement by GPB, the SEC received very little financial support from Georgetown. A Nov. 8, 1974 Voice report noted that the commission was the only student group not receiving direct financial support from the University.

In lieu of University support, the organization primarily raised funds through a concert subscription service for students, along with significant ticket sales to nonGeorgetown students.

However, as concert revenues decreased, SEC found itself unable to adjust its focus as major performers turned away from campus. Facing accusations of financial mismanagement, the SEC disbanded in 1984 and was replaced by GPB. “I would have been furious if my dollars had been spent the way they had been, because the old SEC spent way too much time working for the ‘big concert,’” Director of Student Activities Walter Cramer said in the Sept. 11, 1984 issue of the Voice.

The new GPB was to take over concert planning and

provide smaller-scale programming such as movies and open mic nights. But despite its successes in organizing smaller programs, the group had to deal with the same issues that the SEC faced in its later years—a lack of funding and available concert space.

As Georgetown’s athletic programs expanded during the 1970s, reserving space in McDonough for hosting large events proved difficult. In 1987, GPB was forced to cancel a James Taylor concert it had booked because the athletic department refused to reschedule a volleyball tournament slated for the same day.

McCullough said concert selection today is still limited by athletic schedules.

“The athletic department gives us a day and we can then [select an artist]” she said.

GPB has also historically had low levels of funding compared to peer universities, both locally and nationally. In 1989, GPB’s university budget totaled only $12,000, with $6,000 going to pay off past debts, according to former GPB Chair Alex Gershanik (COL ’90).

Until the end of the 1980s, many campus organizations, including GPB, were able to raise substantial money via the sale of alcohol, since nearly the entirety of students were of drinking age at 18. However, when the D.C. drinking age was raised to 21 in the late ‘80s, campus clubs were effectively cut off from a significant source of revenue.

“A lot of clubs funded themselves through alcohol sales,” Gershanik said. “When I graduated, I don’t think there was one club that could fund themselves through alcohol.”

Georgetown’s small programming budget also put it at a disadvantage compared to other universities when soliciting performers. Ger-

shanik said that GPB’s budget paled in comparison to that of George Washington’s programming board, which received more than $120,000 from the university to fund events.

Unlike Georgetown, most universities funded programming with a mandatory activities fee paid by students each semester as a part of their tuition, he said.

“Program boards were university-subsidized organizations that new their budgets at the beginning of the year,” he said. “My pitch was always, if you want people to stay on campus and you want to have a social community, you want to fund programs that will keep people on campus.”

By 1990, University allocations per student for programming at Georgetown were only a third of George Washington’s, and a fourth of Catholic University’s—even after programs funding was more than doubled the year before.

Although the implementation of a student activities fee in 2001 has helped boost GPB’s budget, the University must still compete for acts with institutions that have larger endowments and activities fees, allowing them to allocate significantly more money to program funding. Yale, Columbia, and Penn routinely spend well over $100,000 to run spring concerts, while GPB’s entire allocation for the upcoming academic year totals only $83,000, according to GUSA FinApp figures.

Despite a recent hike in the activities fee as part of SAFE reform, McCullough is doubtful that GPB will be able to afford substantially bigger acts without hikes in ticket prices.

“We would have to get so much more money to bring in a much larger artist,” she said.

Georgetown’s student-run internet radio station, WGTB,

the georgetown voice 9

deadlistening.com

Deadheads outnumbered students when the Grateful Dead played McDonough. has also offered campus programming through a series of concerts in Bulldog Alley. After partnering with GPB in the spring of 2008 to bring Pittsburgh mash-up artist Girl Talk to campus, the station has begun booking concerts in Bulldog Alley itself. (Disclosure: the writer is a DJ for WGTB).

The group often targets smaller artists that might not be on GPB’s radar, WGTB General Manager Caroline Klibanoff (COL ’12) said. The station has also staged concerts for Titus Andronicus, Free Energy, the Hood Internet, and Best Coast.

“We like to support independent artists,” she said.

“Honestly, we [and GPB] just have two different motives and interests.”

Like GPB, WGTB suffers from space and monetary constraints, generally operating with a programming budget of $30,000 and limited use of the 250-person Bulldog Alley.

“I would hope that as time goes by that we would get more funding and less red tape so that groups such as WGTB could bring the acts that we want to bring,” she said.

Still, the events that it organizes have been well received. Both the Hood Internet and Best Coast performances were sold out.

lll The era of great concerts on campus may be over. The space problems the University faces likely make it impossible to attract pop stars who are used to performing for crowds in the tens of thousands. Then again, innovative GPB and SEC leaders over the past decades have found ways to bring notable acts to campus with relatively slim resources.

The SEC, for example, experimented with inter-campus collaboration when it cosponsored a performance by the Pretenders with American University in 1981.

In the late ‘80s, Gershanik said GPB was able to lower costs by negotiating lower rates with acts already performing near campus.

“When some other school within 50 or 60 miles had somebody, we called them to see if they had the night off before or after,” he said.

Current members of GPB might be able to find similarly innovative ways to bring more popular acts to campus. But until they do, events like last week’s Kevin Rudolf show, which drove away most of its attendees before it ended, could remain the norm.

The golden age of concerts at Georgetown

Graphic by Iris Kim

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10 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

Nomadic gets Hot in Walsh Black Box

by Mary Borowiec As its racy title suggests, Jose Rivera’s References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot abounds with passion, sex, and allusions to everyone’s favorite mustachioed surrealist. But while advertising those elements may pique the audience’s interest, the play, which Nomadic Theater chose for their final production of the season, achieves far more than sexy overtones. It explores the complexity of human relationships and the pertinence of political tensions with Nomadic Theater’s fiercely talented cast executing witty, impassioned dialogue, and the play succeeds in both entertaining and touching its audience.

In the true fashion of Dali, an artist who constantly challenged perceptions of what is real, Rivera’s work exposes the sometimes magical reality behind one seemingly ordinary couple’s life. These glimpses of the impossible are apparent from the play’s start, when a wildly convincing coyote, played by Robert Duffley (COL ’13), tries to seduce a domesticated but easily excitable housecat played by Justine Underhill (COL ’11). (Disclosure: Duffley is a former Voice staff member). Their humorous, highly sexualized dialogue sets the tone of the play, as the coyote boasts, “all nine of your lives will have orgasms!”

These comical exchanges, along with those of Miranda Hall’s

Max Blodgett

“Oh don’t give me that look. Camouflage is totally coming back in style.”

(COL ’11) hilariously lusty moon, color Dali’s foreground with passion and humor. Their antics are bolstered wonderfully in the set design, which incorporates a Daliesque household setting amidst a desert in which the cacti seem to be moving while the moon stands on a mountain nearby.

It is in this setting, which evokes isolation and longing, that the heart of the story develops. It follows Benito, a solder returning home from the Gulf War, and the tension between him and his much-changed wife, Gabriela, that ensues after his return.

As director Amelia Powell (COL ’12) explains in her notes, this plot serves as a foil to that of the opening characters: “A cat and a coyote’s communication is easy compared to the clumsy conversation of a husband and wife.”

From the minute Benito arrives, it is clear that the pair share nothing in common anymore—“except for each other … If that is enough,” Powell writes.

In bringing to life this couple’s dynamic relationship, Zoe Lillian (COL ’13) and Joe Grosodonia (COL ’10) are outstanding, as they manage to capture the bond developed solely by passion unraveled with Benito’s absence. In dialogue

Screw Dali—it’s references to Degas that really get me going. rife with tension, love, frustration, and fear, both Lillian and Grosodonia expose the emotional depth of their characters in highly nuanced but genuine ways.

Their depictions of these complex characters draw on a wide breadth of human experience, from the feeling of mortality to the pain of building close connections with fellow human beings.

Throwing a dose of innocence into the mix is Martin, played by Ryan Merlini (COL ’14), Gabriela’s love-struck, hormonal teenage neighbor. Merlini masters this guise of inexperience and naïveté, as his simplistic devotion to Gabriela sets up a powerful contrast to her otherwise jaded outlook on love.

Max Blodgett

In this production, Powell’s direction succeeds not only in bringing together a vibrant and talented cast, but in exploring political tensions without preaching. Throughout their running dialogue, Benito and Gabriela reflect on the Gulf War, and what it means to “fight for our freedom” in another country, and the play invites the audience to further ruminate on this theme.

Sex, war, love, politics, and, of course, talking animals: References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot has just about anything a Georgetown theatergoer could want. And with a superb cast and stage design, this Nomadic production is sure to survive the “persistence of memory.”

Don’t believe your health teacher: Rubber is not safe

by Heather Regen A few years back, panic abounded when Firestone tires began spontaneously exploding, causing severe injuries to drivers. To most people, this is the extent to which tires can be seen as frightening, life-threatening entities. But most people are not director Quentin Dupieux, who apparently thinks that the malice of tires goes far beyond some technical malfunction. Rather, he takes a bold, completely absurd look at the killing possibilities of this common piece of auto equipment—he makes a villain out of a cold-blooded, murderous rubber tire.

Rubber, the film featuring this fantastic premise, fills the vacuum in the modern horror industry for the absurdist comedic slasher flick. Following the story of a homicidal tire and local law enforcement’s scrambling efforts to stop its killing spree, Rubber

proves far more inventive than its awful tagline, “Are you ‘tired’ of the expected?”

Unlike the horror comedies of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Rubber flaunts

logic behind E.T., The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Pianist. “All great films—without exception— contain an important element of ‘no reason,’” he argues.

‘decide’?) to kill people, and has the power to make people’s heads explode.

However, for those who appreciate a comically cognizant,

If only we had a superhero to defeat this treacherous villain. Where is Michelin Man when you need him? its self-awareness. Rubber offers an immediate, self-aware counter attack: the town’s sheriff, played

by Stephen Spinella, breaks the fourth wall and dives into a tirade against the just-as-unrealistic

And with this assertion, Dupieux presents a movie that takes preposterousness to its highest level. Viewers get no explanation as to why a tire came to life, decided (do tires even

imdb

murderous tire, Rubber proves absolutely delightful. One of the film’s best elements is a group of spectators—armed with binoculars and sleeping bags—who watch the story unfold from afar

in the California dessert. These observers no doubt represent the real audience’s reactions to the offbeat film. A group of nerds argue about how the tire kills its victims—psychokinetic abilities ultimately win over telepathic speculation. Behind them, a duo of teenagers ramp up the Valley girl accent, scoffing at the pointlessness of the whole affair. When local law enforcement unexpectedly pulls the spectators into the storyline, one of them protests, “I’m not a character!”

In a wonderfully horrifying scene, the sheriff delivers a poisoned turkey to the group of spectators in hopes that he can stop acting once they have stopped watching. But even after the last of the spectators dies off and the sheriff walks away, Rubber cannot shake off its audience.

Though it may not pack theatres this spring, the quirky allure of Rubber is destined to gather a cult following down the line.

georgetownvoice.com

“You’re not a doctor, you’re a big, fat, curly-headed fuck.” —Step Brothers

the georgetown voice 11

Meet Metsu at Nat’l Gallery Reviews, Haiku’d

ing scene behind the man—and, of course, a prominently-sized dog—almost make the viewer forGabriel Metsu was a dog perget that the painting is of a very son. Sure, he was other things realistic, and not very attractive, too—a prodigy, a technical masnude Metsu. ter, a champion of capturing huThe second room demonman emotion with a paintbrush, strates a shift to a more personand, despite not even living to centric style, as Metsu’s 1660s 40, one of the most prolific of work demonstrates his ability the impressive band of sevento capture strikingly lifelike, deteenth-century Dutch painters. tailed human emotion. The comBut looking at the paintings in plementary side-by-side Gabriel Metsu, a new exportraits “A Woman Readhibition on display in the ing a Letter” and “A Man National Gallery of Art’s Writing a Letter” embody East Building, it’s clear the sadness of two parted that the artist really loved lovers, and each contains man’s best friend. a painting-within-a-paintIn a majority of the ing that could be a work stunning, few-dozen of art by itself. This room paintings that comprise also showcases Metsu’s the exhibition, a brown ability to paint draped, and white dog—some light-reflecting fabric, and kind of terrier, pera piece of embroidered red haps?—of varying size NatioNal galleRY oF aRt brocade pops up almost as sand bodily positions frequently as the still-perpops up in the fore- Dear Mom, please send more puffy shirts. ground of the scene. While this room, containing paintings from sistent puppy.

As an exhibit in the East might seem a little random or the 1650s, focuses more heavily on unworthy of note, this ubiqui- background and setting than on Building of the National Gallery, tous canine is a microcosm of human subjects. “An Old Woman which houses Calder’s mobiles Metsu’s talent. Even when he’s with Her Meal” takes place in and other marvels of modern art, only a few inches long, putting a painstakingly detailed room, a seventeenth-century oil painthis front paws on the skirt of complete with a small, glimmer- ing exhibit like Gabriel Metsu a light-bathed noblewoman in ing glass of orange liquid and a might seem a little incongruous.

“A Hunter Visiting a Woman at playful kitten at her feet. Even in But Metsu’s technical merit and Her Toilet” (note: not a toilet in his own self-portrait, “A Hunter delicate emotion make him worthe modern sense), this dog is Getting Dressed After Bath- thy of display alongside visual exquisite—his long fur shines ing,” Metsu focuses more on the artists from any era—plus, he with dimension, his eyes light background than on the human paints some pretty damn adorup with genuine animal emo- subject, and the lush, captivat- able puppies.

by Leigh Finnegan

tion, and his loose-hanging silken ribbon looks real enough for the viewer to reach into the canvas and pull.

Gabriel Metsu is arranged chronologically, with each of the exhibit’s two rooms representing a single decade of his 20-year career of oil-on-canvas painting.

The setup is intuitive and effective, showing the clear progression of the artist’s career. The first

Please drink irresponsibly

Day drinking is awesome.

I don’t need to tell you that.

You’ve experienced Georgetown Day, or you’re eagerly looking forward to your first.

You’ve turned any old weekend afternoon into the most idyllic afternoon you can remember with nothing but a loaded Nalgene, two friends, and a portable speaker set.

Maybe you did it on Monday, when all of Georgetown spilled onto Healy Lawn like it was covered in candy.

But you do need to be counseled to do it more often.

I’m an outgoing senior, and big on giving uninvited advice as we are, I want to share a lesson I learned at Georgetown that only a school full of harddrinking Catholics could have

so deeply imparted to me. As soon as spring hits Georgetown in earnest, as soon as you can count the number of weeks left in the semester on one hand, day drink as often as you can.

And at least once each spring semester, skip class to do it.

Currently, I skip the very occasional class to catch up on reading for another, or put in extra work for a paper. So what’s the harm in racking up one more absence to drink a beer and burn through four comic books on my back porch? None.

I know I may sound like a loafing jerk, but please realize that I’m assuming my baseline readers are like me—pretty damn responsible, committed to learning, and keen on getting good grades, not just pass-

able ones. Exactly the kind of students who need a break and have set themselves up to take one.

You’ve skipped class at least once this year because you decided you’d rather nap, because it was raining, or because you hadn’t been absent yet and that

amuse-bouche

by Molly Redden

a bi-weekly column about food and drink class is in Walsh for crying out loud. What did you do with that time? If you actually napped, for shame. Skipping class is a self indulgent and selfish thing to do—at least have the guts to double down on your selfishness when you do it.

D.C. is almost too full of fantastic parks and attractions not

Soul Surfer A cute surfer girl And a tiger shark dine out.

Nobody wants seconds.

Scream 4 High school jock killer, Do us all a favor and Kill David Arquette.

The Conspirator Abe Lincoln’s been dead For forever. Let’s move on— Who killed Billy Mays?

African Cats Lions. Tigers. Bears.

Sam Jackson. You can pick two.

This film gets it right.

Fast Five The one thing faster Is how quickly this movie Will be forgotten.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold His last two docs were Eating crap and smoking weed.

Now Pom sponsors him?

—Brendan Baumgardner, Matthew Decker, Leigh Finnegan

to blow class for an afternoon like this. Open-top tour buses and the pockets of beautifully preserved nature that dot D.C. may as well have been designed for surreptitious boozing and brazen relaxing.

And although this is my last installation of the drinking column—meaning it may be high on my Google results—hell, I’ll say it. Day drink on days you can’t afford to.

Drink on Sunday afternoons and Tuesday afternoons and stay out too late on Thursdays, because there’s nothing so glorious and freeing as pretending that you have fewer responsibilities than you really do—and then getting away with it. Because you will. That unskippable class you have on Monday, with its leering 200 pages’ worth of reading? Trust me, it’s skippable.

Go overboard on Wednesday afternoon just before that seminar you really shouldn’t miss. Your career as a snotty investment banker or lowly member of a K Street bar’s waitstaff lurks just around the corner. Once you’re in that position, your peers, boss, and rent are all going to depend on you to show up for work without fail and deliver on the job you promised to do.

By contrast, here at Georgetown, your fellow students in your Gothic Literature 8:50 will soldier on without you. If you must, call it extracurricular study. For Edgar Allen Poe once wrote, “What care I how time advances? I am drinking today.”

Play hooky with Molly at mredden@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Battles, Gloss Drop, Warp Records Flash back to 2007. Radiohead released their blandest album to date, M.I.A. went from agent provocateur to pop auteur, and Feist’s “1234” was synonymous with “alternative.” That is to say: the underground needed a kick in the pants. And Battles gladly provided, with a blend of math rock, prog, and jazz hard enough to sound fresh but whimsical enough to avoid the standard critiques of R-A-W-K rock.

It’s 2011 and not much has changed. Radiohead is still peddling coffee house electronica, M.I.A.’s best work sounds more like Britney than Missy, and, well, at least we’ve all forgotten Feist.

While Battles’ peers in experimentation have smoothed out their sound—Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is an exercise in aural sterility, and LCD Soundsystem made a Roxy Music tribute album before headlining Madison

Square Garden—the New York threesome seems content to stay the course with Gloss Drop.

It’s a little unexpected, considering that Battles are now a threesome. The departure of vocalist/ multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton has barely impacted the group’s sound, which has mostly explored the same territory since their first EP dropped in 2004. This territory, where the band manages to meld electronic music and technically proficient rock with apparent ease, remains singular (you won’t be confusing the motorik post-rock of “Futura” with anyone else) but, at this juncture, unexciting.

That’s a letdown, considering the way the group stormed the indie scene just a few years ago. Sure, “Wall Street” has all the hallmarks of a great Battles tune—jittery guitar lines, spacey keyboards, astounding rhythm work—but comparisons to machines are no longer impressive here; the songs sound more like they came off the Battles’ assembly line than from the Battles’ Voltron.

The songs with guest vocalists fare slightly better. On these tracks, the group shapes their signature sound around a new presence, adding enough spice to be refreshing on a second goaround. “Sweetie and Shag,” with Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino, is a delightful affair that marries the vocalist’s dainty work with

Fifth time’s a charm?

Most football players, once they’ve reached a certain age and reputation, decide that despite offers to keep playing, they should end their careers and settle into their spots in NFL history. Then there’s Brett Favre. Past his prime, and even after a self-proclaimed retirement—no, make that two— he insisted on continuing his career after catching the scent of a hefty paycheck.

Hollywood has a nasty tendency of embracing spent characters too, because even as movie series go into their third and fourth installments, they continue to profit from their predecessors’ success.

Sequels have come to be the bane of the film industry, and despite a few critically acclaimed exceptions (The Godfather: Part II), a majority lack talent, creativity, and attention

to detail (The Godfather: Part III).

The sequel is an inherently flawed, almost surefire recipe for a sub-par movie. Because it’s always lurking in the shadows of its predecessor, a sequel does not have to live up to the mind-blowing content of the original. Rather, like a child fed with a silver spoon, the filmmaker behind a sequel knows that he or she can produce a halfassed effort that, given the large following of the original installment, will still turn a profit.

This weekend, Scream 4 will open. Scream 3, released in 2000, holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating below 40 percent, but the third feature in the series earned nearly four times its estimated budget, all but ensuring the return of Ghostface. While its resurrection took more than 10 years, a series carry-

the group’s muscular technicality, and “Ice Cream” (featuring Chilean electronic artist Matias Aguayo on vocals) is one of the best songs you’ll hear all year. It finds the band bending its tendencies around Aguayo’s playful minimalism. Just don’t expect such pliancy on the rest of Gloss Drop.

Voice’s Choices: “Ice Cream,” “My Machines,” “Sundome” —Matthew Collins

TV on the Radio, Nine Types of Light, Interscope Records When trying to woo a woman, every man has a different game plan. There’s the flowersand-candy set, the outside-herwindow-with-a-stereo tactic, and, of course, the ever-popular love song. Although they don’t specify exactly whom they’re attempting to snag, on Nine Types of Light, TV on the Radio is apparently opting for this last approach. But before ing that kind of sustainable profitability is destined to continue as long as a viable audience is still alive and active enough to make its way to the movie theatre.

Just a few weeks after, the Fast and Furious series will release its (dear god) fifth feature, Fast Five.

Fade to Black

by John Sapunor

a bi-weekly column about film Horror movie sequels may suck, but car racing movies starring Vin Diesel, the least talented member of Hollywood’s Douche Troupe, have no right to exist—let alone four of them. O.J.’s snail-paced car pursuit was at least three or four times as entertaining as the original Fast and Furious, and four sequels later, this installment has about as high of a chance of turn-

you think that everyone’s favorite Brooklyn experimental outfit has gone soft, be warned that this isn’t your typical acoustic-guitar loverock—TV remains true to itself the whole way through, blasting their lamenting and lovelorn lyrics with explosions of carefully structured chaos that no indie-loving girl could resist.

Like TV’s previous four albums—especially their last release, 2008’s critically-adored Dear Science—Nine Types boasts a cadre of influences that would smother a less talented artist. But the instrumentalists in TV are seasoned pros, seamlessly melding everything from jazz to electro into every song on the album, all narrated by Tunde Adebimpe’s soulful croons and underscored by unmistakably funk bass lines. From the minute the album opener, oddly titled “Second Song,” breaks from its vocal-focused intro into a stuttering horn-and-synth conglomeration heightened by Adebimpe’s Jimmy Page-esque falsetto, it is clear that Nine Types is not going to be a drastic departure from the band’s 10-year reign as champions of experimental indie.

The album’s subsequent tracks, beginning with slow-tostart ballad “Keep Your Heart,” further prove that newfound love and maturity haven’t tempered the aging band. The vocals on “Keep Your Heart” switch being out watchable as a David Carradine sex tape.

Now, there are exceptions to the rule. Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and any pre-mandated follow-ups like those in the Lord of the Rings series escape the sequel law of diminishing returns. These films, the products of visionary directors (James Cameron gets credit where credit is due), aren’t in the same category as movies like Fast Five. What I’m talking about is an entirely different breed of sequels—the profiteering, cliché, made-insix-months-so-people-are-stillinterested variety. Just look at the Saw series—director James Wan got approval for the sequel within the original’s opening weekend in 2004, and since then has churned out six sequels. Producing films at this rate sacrifices quality, but maximizes profits. If

tween high-pitched and deep and heartfelt, professing that “If all the world falls apart/ I’m gonna keep your heart” over a beautifully integrated mandolin. The mournful “You,” a lament for a lost love, has similarly delightful vocals, but its lo-fi distortion and singsong, somewhat island-y melody keep it from becoming too depressing or heavy.

But with all the successful tales of love and loss on Nine Types, TV really excels on tracks where the romantic element is relegated to the background in favor of fullblown, chaotic instrumentation.

The album’s clear frontrunner is the bass-driven “New Cannonball Run,” where Adebimpe proclaims that he is “singing blues that hit you like a cannonball.” Truer words could not be said about the song—its forceful, inescapable beat is backed and highlighted by softer electronic work, launching a heavy but thoroughly welcome aural attack on the listener. And with angsty, bluesy tracks like this one interspersed throughout the album, TV not only shows that it can expertly execute love songs, they make us eager to hear the break-up album.

Voice’s Choices: “New Cannonball Run,” “Second Song,” “You” —Leigh Finnegan it pays for the exec’s Ferrari, he doesn’t care about how crappy the movie is.

Risk-averse Hollywood, which now relies on strong franchises and best-selling book adaptations, has become increasingly obsessed with milking the last possible penny out of a series before finally letting it die. Sequels are in their heyday, but this craze will (I hope) end as audiences realize how dreadful and uninspired they are. But then again, this requires an unwarranted faith in the American moviegoing public, which continues to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to see Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Shame on you, America. And screw you, Vin Diesel.

Get John’s sloppy seconds at jsapunor@georgetownvoice.com

georgetownvoice.com

page thirteen

S P E T S

By Jared Watkins

3:15 to 4:45, Brown Hall 216, 3:15 to 4:45, Brown Hall 216, 3:15 to 4:45, Brown Hall two…

Twenty six? No 216. Brown Hall 216.

Got it. He is walking under a bright winter afternoon which shunned his heavy coat. Too late to go back, can’t take it off. Light sweat is the appropriate accessory in such a situation. Brown Hall 216. Why does the ground have to be wet, he should’ve worn his hiking boots. Wet socks are the appropriate accessory in such a situation. Brown Hall 216. Oh shit, is that Kevin? Can’t tell, he is near-sighted, vain, and forgetful, a combination which makes poor facial recognition the appropriate accessory in such a situation. Is he smiling? He better preempt his greeting if he doesn’t want to be considered off-putting.

Hey Kevin, oh thank god it’s Kevin, that might have been embarrassing.

I’m doing good man, how about you?

That’s great, got to get to class, have a good one. Ergh, just a little farther, no more somebodies he knows, please.

Brown Hall 216. By this time, he knows you can fit three steps between each line if you just do an awkward ¾ step at the end. So that’s how it goes: 1, 2, 3

and then 1, 2, 3

and then 1, 2, 3.

If you breathe on each step it makes the pattern easier. Do other people notice this dance? Let them notice. Brown Hall 216. Oh god, is that Stephanie?

Definitely better make sure that this is her before waving to another stranger.

Near-sighted, vain, forgetful, you know the story. Should he look the other way,

it’s still probable that he didn’t notice her.

Wait, what is she doing? Not noticing him?

Unacceptable.

Publicly calling to her is the appropriate accessory in such a situation. Coupled with slight indifference, yeah that’s a good combination. Hey Stephanie how’s it going, that’s good, it’s been a while we should hang out, yeah that sounds good, oh yeah yeah I’ve got to go to class too, oh yeah I’ll talk to you later. What was that all about? Yeah,we’ve all got class,but you can’t take a few minutes to talk? Indignation, that’s the appropriate accessory in such a situation. Or maybe forgetting about it is. Damn it, he should have more important things to think about… like 1, 2, 3

and then 1, 2, 3

and then 1, 2, 3 and then 1. It’s for the better, though, he would’ve made a fool of himself.

Brown Hall 216. Ah, delicious Brown Hall, the expected edifice looming large over the barren trees surrounding the fountain favored by tourists with small children and fists full of change looking for a place that is outside of the fountain. Brown Hall, named after President Zachary Brown who commissioned a rather large upscale of the university firmly placing us in line to be a world-class institution. Please save all questions until the end. We look to you, oh Brownie Hall, and find an hour or two of zoning out coupled with that feeling of oh did I learn something… by jove I might have, curious. Crampy little place with lots of hinges and plastic and that shiny metal and chalkboards making him sneeze. Inoffensive carpet and drywall, the appropriate accessories for such a situation. Lying on that inoffensive carpet and hoping you can be completely absorbed

the georgetown voice 13

by it, or maybe just blend into it.

That might be enough. Let the drywall take him, hide behind light switches. Anything to escape the 1,2,3

and then 1, 2, 3

and then 1, 2, 3 in Brown Hall 216. But now there’s no 1, 2, 3 and he’s sitting in a chair and he’s shaking his leg to a faster rhythm and a few more trickle in. He smiles at one person he’s seen before and wonders what to make of the rest.

Where’s the strategy? What do they mean when they do all that? He doesn’t have to make of the rest or where they sit or why they sit since distraction is but a nailbite or a watchglance or a phonecheck or a neckscratch or a paperscribble away. More, more, more come in. The clock’s big hand nears the three, nearing the three, nearing the three, more, more, more come in, welcome bigshots, peewees, talkers, sulkers, swimmers, drowners, betweeners, nears the three, nearing the three, nearing the three, a notebook will make him seem more prepared, more proactive, oh the notebook he’s had for three semesters and has barely used for notes, more come in, oh is that a professor, nears the three, nearing the three, nearing the three, near-sighted, vain, and forgetful, he didn’t forget his glasses this time, does he need them, brutal expectation is the appropriate accessory for this situation, and then we all look to the clock wallowing in that space between conversation and pedagogy, wondering when the upper part of his beard will separate from the lower part, wondering when the sheets of paper will be passed around, when the judgment will be cast, when the hands will be raised, and he might look straight at you and ask about your hesitation, and you’ll think, and he’ll move on, he opens his mouth: well class welcome to Brown Hall 216, your first assignment is to partner up and take turns melting into chairs, shall we get started?

voices

14 the georgetown voice

april 14, 2011

Possible Republican candidates are praying for victory

by Rachel Calvert The religious right is back on the Road to Victory. Early in the 2012 election season, socially conservative members of the GOP are attempting to rally their conservative Christian constituents, tapping into a formidable grassroots mechanism rooted in evangelical communities. The Tea Party, meanwhile, is making moves to secure the allegiance of the institutions that shape the religious right and its electoral potency.

At a recent convention in Iowa, four potential Republican candidates—Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), and Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.)—encouraged a room of pastors to engage their congregations in the electoral process. Targeting the state where the first 2012 primary will be held, this convention was representative of a widespread effort to reenergize the religious right by highlighting threats to conservative Christian values posed by the left. It’s a getout-the-vote campaign reminis-

cent of the successful grassroots and lobbying maneuvers executed at the peak of the last religious revival in the 1980s and 1990s.

During this period, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson all used their evangelical influence to spread the religious right’s political ideology. Robertson’s conservative lobbying and grassroots organizing group, the Christian Coalition, used churches as a platform to drum up support for conservative candidates. In the words of Falwell: “Get them saved, get them baptized, and get them registered.”

Leading up to the 1994 midterm elections, the Christian Coalition distributed 40 million copies of their “Family Values Voting Guide” to 100,000 churches nationwide. Engaging the religious right in their pre-existing communities proved incredibly effective and precipitated a slew of Republican victories.

Unlike other civil communities, churches tend to be highly social—where ideas become entrenched by sermons, and congre-

gations subscribe to a relatively homogenous ideology. Several features of church communities make them ideal grassroots mechanisms: they interact with the broader community, congregations are highly dedicated to the institutional ideology, and there is a lot of social capital that comes with working on behalf of a candidate endorsed by the church.

Now, early on the campaign trail to the 2012 elections, far-right Republicans are courting pastors of evangelical churches, promoting the party line and characterizing the liberal left as a threat to the moral fabric of the country. While the right’s rhetoric recalls the televangelist-driven revival, the rise of megachurches preaching personal salvation has morphed the religious right’s landscape, and political operatives have replaced evangelists in the religious sphere.

However, the convention in Iowa sought to draw pastors back into the fold of political involvement. Speakers at the conference exhorted the pastors—and by proxy their followers—to combat

moral threats like gay marriage and abortion. There were also calls to follow God’s word by opposing activist judges, high taxes, explicit sex education, and assaults on private property rights. Members of the far-right are seeking to combat the left by applying a dogmatic religious lens to their conservative rhetoric. By now, it’s a familiar amalgam that appeals to a wellexercised grassroots apparatus.

The convention was just one instance in the quiet movement to reenlist a group of incredibly effective mouthpieces for the far-right. As Tea Party ideology takes a more and more prominent position in the broader GOP, the self-described libertarian group has made moves to incorporate the religious right’s priorities into its decidedly secular platform.

Before the 2010 midterm elections, leaders of the Tea Party Patriots met with the Council for National Policy, a fundraising powerhouse whose membership list is composed of prominent figures on the religious right. Al-

though the CNP has expressed qualms about the Tea Party’s lack of religiosity, the conservative group might well be making an effort to rebrand itself to capitalize on the religious right’s grassroots might. During a Faith and Freedom convention, national Tea Party coordinator Mark Meckler assured the CNP that Tea Partiers were concerned about “this idea of separation of church and state. We’re angry about the removal of God from the public square.”

Though the televangelist-driven revival may have faded, the religious right remains an influential and powerful component of the GOP’s base. Engaging this base would mean an even more ominous electoral force for Democrats to contend with in 2012, in which case they might not have a prayer.

Rachel Calvert is a freshman in the College. She’ll only vote Republican if the candidates debate speaking in tongues.

Knicks’ success hearkens back to its old winning Spree

by Thomas Kearney As a lifelong Knicks fan who has spent the last decade allowing myself to be convinced that the likes of Antonio McDyess, Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Penny Hardaway, Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Malik Rose, Don Chaney, Larry Brown, and Isiah Thomas could contribute to a competitive Knicks team, it’s incredibly rewarding to

watch the current squad putting up big numbers in the win column.

The arrival of Amar ’e Stoudemire brought credibility and, more importantly, Carmelo Anthony to the franchise.

In recent days, the Knicks have locked up their first playoff berth since 2004 and first winning season since 1999. The team is star-studded, fun to watch, and plays with an unreal amount of confidence. But

FLICKR

Knicks fans can wear their jerseys proudly for the first time since Sprewell did.

as much as I love the current Knicks team and their collective swagger, their success reminds me that the bunch which shocked the world and made the NBA Finals as an eight-seed in 1999 will always hold a uniquely special place in my heart.

Any good sports fan from the New York area can rattle off the names: stars like Allan Houston, Marcus Camby, Larry Johnson, and Patrick Ewing, all the way down to clumsy backup center Chris Dudley and 12th man/assistant coach Herb Williams. The scrappy crew, guided by head coach Jeff Van Gundy, was personified by their small forward, one of the most hated players in the NBA, Latrell Sprewell.

As a 9-year-old, I loved to cheer for Sprewell because of his dynamic offense, relentless defense, and winner-take-all attitude. No one dove for a loose ball with more intensity, and when he fouled someone, they stayed fouled.

The Knicks managed to acquire Sprewell for 50 cents on the dollar from the Golden State Warriors because he had attempted to strangle his head coach during practice. Unsurprisingly, he became a constant source of debate in my family, with my grandfather insisting he was a “bum” (mostly be-

cause of the aforementioned strangling incident) and me delighting in pushing his buttons by wearing Sprewell’s jersey around and singing his praises whenever possible. It was my first small act of rebellion and defiance against my father and grandfather.

The intensity of Sprewell’s effort, particularly on the defensive end, eventually won him some grudging respect from the older males in my family, which I, of course, counted as a huge victory.

Houston was the Knicks’ top scoring threat, Camby anchored the defense, Ewing was a living legend still in the tail end of his prime, Johnson was the go-to guy in the clutch, but Sprewell was my favorite because his attitude and intensity made what the other guys did matter. I looked up to Latrell because even though I would never be able to shoot like Houston, rebound like Johnson, or dominate the paint like Camby, I could always emulate Spree, making sure to be the first one back on defense and putting in 100 percent effort on both sides of the ball.

As the Knicks begin their playoff run, I am not expecting the same result as in 1999.

Most Knicks fans would be thrilled with a competitive first round series against the

experienced and talented Celtics, knowing that our team will continue to improve over the next several years. For the first time in a decade, a championship, which has eluded Madison Square Garden since 1973, appears possible in the not-too-distant future.

Nonetheless, I still believe it is possible that 10 years from now, someone who’s now in fourth grade will be writing an article for his college paper on how Stoudemire, Anthony, Landry Fields, Chauncey Billups, and the rest of the 2011 Knicks helped define a moment in his adolescence with their improbable run to the NBA championship. It would certainly memorialize a part of my college experience. That is what sports is all about, and it’s why Knicks fans like myself have suffered through the last decade and not given up on the team through one losing season and embarrassing scandal after another. As the great poet (and Knicks fan) 50 Cent once said, “Sunny days wouldn’t be special if it wasn’t for rain.”

Thomas Kearney is a junior in the College. His second major act of rebellion as a 9-year-old was his belly button ring.

voices

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice

15

Constant news updates won’t tell you the complete story

by Aodhan Beirne Every once in a while, I try to emulate the majority of my classmates by actually following current events. But despite my valiant effort to watch CNN and Fox News this week, I am not significantly more knowledgeable about the issues that affect the world than I would be if I had spent the time sleeping.

I admit, I learned a few things: Bahrain sort of has three syllables, and as long as it’s close, you can

spell “Gaddafi” however you please. Amidst the ever-present Twitter feeds and fancy touch screens employed by the news anchors, however, I failed to learn what Gaddafi’s latest move was, what exactly was happening in Bahrain, or where Bahrain actually is in the Middle East.

I understood that the flashy visuals and unending updates were what ensured that people would actually watch CNN. People don’t want to see in-depth analysis of the Middle East crisis

Unfortunately, CNN also equals disjointed news reporting.

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Monetizing modern art In a recent Wall Street Journal profile of superstar art dealer Larry Gagosian, the author explains that a decade ago, the abstract work of Cecily Brown would only sell for around $8,000. However, all that changed when curators from the Tate and the Museum of Modern Art, at Gagosian’s encouragement, began to buy Brown’s work. Today, Brown’s paintings are sold for around $800,000.

A hundred-fold increase in price may seem staggering, but this is a normal occurrence for Gagosian, who runs a global art empire with over $1 billion in annual sales and approximately 60 shows a year (as a point of comparison, Sotheby’s auctioned off $870 million worth of contemporary art last year). And while the art world is inherently prone to flash over

substance, it seems that Gagosian reflects a large segment of the market that has ceased to evaluate aesthetic expression in favor of whatever art is in highest demand—and has the highest price.

I think it’s worth stepping back to evaluate what a prospective buyer should look for when purchasing a work of art.

At its core, the art world should be about promoting individuals who help us see the world anew.

Objects, colors, and shapes are arranged in such a compelling way that the artist is able to touch his or her audience deeply or cause them to reflect. This is especially true of modern art, which granted painters and sculptors freedom from the traditional limitations of expression.

The profound feeling many people receive standing before

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when they can be watching Robin Meade tinker with what is apparently a 3-D visual of the latest airstrike. Though I think cable news has changed to appease a culture with a diminishing attention span, it doesn’t bother me, both because it has entertainment value, but mostly because I don’t watch it that often.

Nevertheless dejected, I turned to online content, assuming that those who were serious about being informed did not do so by watching The O’Reilly Factor or The Situation Room. On the CNN homepage, I read the first article I saw on Bahrain, coming across phrases like “continuing protests” and “ongoing conflict.”

I wasn’t looking for a Wikipedia entry on the entire crisis, but some information, at most a paragraph, to contextualize the protests and conflict would have made the article worth reading for me. Instead, I felt more unaware than I had already been.

The MSNBC Twitter page was also disappointing, albeit more expectedly. All the major news sources use Twitter’s, and yet often words cannot be spelled correctly because it would render the message too long for Twitter 140-character limit. Though each tweet contains a link to a story, I the rich tonal paintings of Mark Rothko or the geometrically chaotic works of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso convey exactly this sense. Unsurprisingly, Gagosian controls the estate of Picasso and numerous other groundbreaking artists like Alberto Giacometti, Richard Serra, and Damien Hurst.

Yet he also dramatically ratchets up the prices of the works without the same visionary qualities, transferring the artists behind

Carrying On

by Eric Pilch A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

them from modest successes to stratospheric earners with wide renown.

“In the contemporary art market, there is no standard formula for determining what an artist is worth,” the Wall Street Journal noted. “It’s famously difficult to determine which artist will have lasting cultural significance over decades or centuries, and which will be a flash in the pan. This gives top dealers like Mr. Gagosian enormous power to influence and even set the markets for the artists they represent. Anyone

already know that even the complete story will offer incomplete information.

I have come to the conclusion that, with the exception of the major newspapers, no news sources report stories anymore—only updates. These updates, however, are useless unless the reader has read every preceding update about the issue. An update only helps if you have basic knowledge, and Twitter updates from CNN don’t provide that.

And unfortunately for the fight against ignorance, the popularity of Twitter has influenced the way people want news, and thus, the way news sources will report it, resulting in the short, shallow, and constant reports on television and online.

There’s an assumption that because of Twitter, and even Facebook, everyone is attuned to current events. News is available everywhere now, and unless you actively ignore your surroundings, phone, or computer, there should be no reason to not be informed. But this information is disjointed, requiring further research for full understanding, and because of our generation’s shrinking attention span, I don’t think this research occurs.

Twitter, and the style of reporting it now inspires, is often hailed who wants his art must pay his prices.”

That may seem obvious, but it reveals the paradox of the commercial world Gagosian inhabits.

When working with Gagosian, people are not buying into an artist due to an appreciation of their work so much as they are buying into the hype that Gagosian has built. You get the overwhelming feeling that clients purchasing an $800,000 Cecily Brown abstraction don’t say to their friends, “Look at this magnificent painting” without at least slipping in a passing reference to Gagosian’s blue chip name.

This quality of the modern art world was conveyed especially well in the Exit Through the Gift Shop, a 2010 film directed by cult graffiti artist Banksy. The film follows Thierry Guetta, originally an amateur documenter of the street art scene, as he attempts to create and market his own work based on the unexpected commercial success of his friend Banksy’s street art. Reinventing himself as “Mr. Brainwash,” Guetta mortgages his successful business and hires a team of assistants to produce astonishingly gaudy pieces.

The show is promoted using a quote from Banksy and becomes a huge success as millions of dollars

as having the ability to spread information around the world in only a second. I concede that it was perhaps the most important source of information during the Egypt riots, as official foreign correspondents were being arrested and detained.

But major news sources cannot use Twitter as a model. Ultimately, it will limit knowledge, because of the burden of linking together updates for a full story. This burden may prove too heavy for some, especially those not familiar with the Twitter model.

In hindsight, I ought to have gone immediately to The New York Times for the sort of coverage I had in mind. In fact, the Times was the only source I found to have reported Tuesday being the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, complete with in-depth analysis. But even the Times is progressing, complete with its own Twitter and video feed, leaving me in the dust. Perhaps it’s time I change to embrace the progress, and succumb to the #inevitable.

Aodhan Beirne is a junior in the College. He much prefers the Voices section to the oft-updated Vox Populi. of Brainwash art are sold.

One scene shows a wealthy Los Angeles art collector who explains that no modern art collection is complete without street art, a claim that strikes the viewer as ridiculous when the ensuing conversation reveals the woman has no knowledge or appreciation for what she is purchasing.

Like Gagosian’s superstar clients, a large portion of the highest rung in the contemporary art world appears to be part of an elaborate ruse—people trade large sums of money for things they are duped into believing are relevant. And while there is no easy solution to this problem, it begins with addressing a lack of imagination and cultural appreciation among art collectors.

Rather than flocking to the likes of Gagosian, the fabulously wealthy would be better off browsing galleries in New York or London and paying a great deal more attention to artists’ expression rather than the price tags hanging from the pieces.

Eric Pilch is a senior in the College.

He’s bitter because he only made $5 selling his finger paintings.

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